JACKSONVILLE, Fla.(Mar. 5, 2011) - Following a tough loss to North Florida yesterday, the ETSU women's tennis team rebounded with a 5-2 victory over previously unbeaten Jacksonville, Saturday afternoon in A-Sun action at the Keith Watson Family Tennis Complex.

"I want to first give a lot of credit to Coach Miles and his team today," said ETSU Assistant Coach Travis Sandlant. "We had many chances to close out JU and win convincingly, but they just kept fighting their way into the matches and actually gave themselves a chance to win today. I am very proud of how the girls responded to the pressure that JU put on us and got over the line."

The Bucs got out to a nice start by winning the crucial doubles point after taking two out of the three matches. The duo of Kelly Holtzhausen (Johannesburg, South Africa) and Marine Wieliczko (Rouen, France) started the day with a solid 8-3 win over Natalia Melibeu and Flavia Nagayama. Then, the Bucs clinched the doubles point as Diana Navrostska (Lviv, Ukraine) and Andra Voinea (Brasov, Romania) defeated Virginia Iwinski and Veronique Spencer, 8-5.

In singles play, the Bucs picked up a couple of early wins as Voinea defeated Spencer, 6-2, 6-2, at the No. 6 position. Voinea continues to be dominant at singles play as she moves to 6-2 on the season. She has now won three consecutive matches. The Bucs also got a straight set victory from Paula Jaime (Madrid, Spain) as she got past Gabriela Bartos, 6-2, 7-5.

With the Bucs needing just one more victory to clinch the match, things started to get tight as the Dolphins earned two straight set wins of their own to trail by just one at 3-2. The two matches still in progress were at the No. 4 and 5 positions as both went to three sets.

At the No. 4 position ETSU junior Karina Kedzo (Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela) took the opening set against Melibeu, but fell in the second to force a third frame. Kedzo came out strong in the third set and won it 6-1 to end the match. Navrostska also went to three sets in her match against Iwinski at the No. 5 position. She also earned a victory as she shut Iwinski out in the third set, 6-0.

"We must improve on being able to finish off teams when we are up and not let them back in," added Sandlant. "Today we took the foot off the pedal and nearly paid the price of it. We are looking forward to our match tomorrow against Florida Atlantic."

With the win, the Bucs move to 3-5 (1-1 A-Sun) on the season, while snapping a five-match losing streak. Meanwhile, Jacksonville falls to 7-1 (0-1 A-Sun).

The Bucs remain on the Florida road swing as they take on Florida Atlantic tomorrow at 11 a.m. in non-conference action.

For more information on the ETSU women's tennis team please go to ETSUBucs.com and click on the women's tennis link. Also, be sure to follow ETSU Athletics on Facebook and Twitter.